Europe|Mattis Rejects Closer Military Ties With Russia as He Reassures NATO

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Mattis Rejects Closer Military Ties With Russia as He Reassures NATO

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In a speech to NATO defense ministers, the Pentagon chief pointed to Russia and terrorism coming from the Middle East and North Africa as threats to the alliance.CreditCreditThierry Charlier/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

BRUSSELS — Defense Secretary Jim Mattis appeared to close the door Thursday on increased military ties between the United States and Russia, dimming, for the moment, prospects that President Trump’s election would soon usher in warmer relations.

Mr. Mattis’s rejection of stronger ties, made during a NATO meeting in Brussels, came amid a flurry of mixed messages about the outlook for improvement in the American-Russian relationship under the Trump administration.

He spoke as Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., the top United States military officer, was meeting with his Russian counterpart for the first time in almost three years. And it came on the same day that President Vladimir V. Putin called for Russian intelligence agencies to bolster ties with the American intelligence community in the fight against terrorism.

“Restoring dialogue with the special services of the United States and other NATO members is in our mutual interest,” Mr. Putin told the country’s F.S.B. intelligence agency in a televised speech. His comments, coming as Mr. Trump was using his Twitter account to denounce leaks from the American intelligence community, were greeted with surprise among some United States officials.

Mr. Mattis, for his part, made clear that his criticism of Russia had not changed. Appearing before reporters, Mr. Mattis, a former Marine general, said Russia needed to “live by international law like we expect all mature nations on this planet to do.”

There was no doubt, he added, that Russia had “interfered or attempted to interfere in a number of elections,” implying, although not specifically saying, that the Russians had meddled in the process that led to his own boss’s election as president.

And while Mr. Mattis said that American political leaders would look for common ground with the Russians, he added that when it came to real intelligence sharing and military cooperation, “Russia is going to have to prove itself first.”

Mr. Mattis’s comments are significant because more than any other cabinet member or top administration official, with the possible exception of Stephen K. Bannon, Mr. Trump’s chief strategist, he is regarded by Mr. Trump as the most trusted on a number of national security issues.

Mr. Trump has moved closer to the views held by Mr. Mattis, including dropping his insistence about using torture; calling for Russia to return Crimea, which it annexed in 2014; and Ukraine.

At the NATO defense ministers’ meeting this week, part of the new administration’s first diplomatic engagement in Europe, much of the talk in the hallways dwelled on whether Mr. Mattis could continue to move the Trump administration toward positions on national security issues more palatable to the United States’ European allies.

After speaking with Mr. Mattis, “we don’t have any doubts that the United States will stay committed to NATO,” said Raimundas Karoblis, the Lithuanian defense minister. He, like several defense ministers, seemed so relieved to hear Mr. Mattis repeat standard American talking points about its commitment to NATO that he and the others did not complain about the demand the American defense secretary issued on Wednesday, telling them to commit more to military spending or see the United States “moderate” its commitment to the alliance — whatever that might mean.

Pressed on Thursday about what exactly he had meant by what sounded like an ultimatum, Mr. Mattis declined to elaborate, sparing the assembled diplomats from envisioning a pullout of American troops from Europe.

“That’s the headline that I do not want,” he said, smiling broadly at the reporters in front of him. “We will write our own headlines as a unified alliance.”

He said that the American “commitment to Article 5 remains solid,” referring to the NATO’s principle that an attack on one is an attack on all.

It remains unclear just how long Mr. Mattis’s influence over an unpredictable president will last, and officials at the Pentagon have privately speculated about how long Mr. Mattis will last.

For now though, he appears to be influencing policy.

He told reporters that he had not decided whether to recommend sending more American troops to Syria as part of the campaign to fight the Islamic State, but that he wanted to consult with American allies first and get a better view of the situation in the Middle East.

On Wednesday, Mr. Mattis told fellow NATO ministers that he had no illusions about warmer relations with Moscow. The alliance, he said, “needed to be realistic in our expectations and ensuring our diplomats negotiate from a position of strength.”

That statement went over poorly in Moscow. The news agency Tass quoted the Russian defense minister, Sergei K. Shoigu, as saying that “attempts to build a dialogue with Russia from a position of strength” would be “futile.”

Mr. Mattis gave the verbal equivalent of a shrug. “I have no need to respond to the Russian statement at all,” he said.

In Baku, Azerbaijan, General Dunford met with the head of the Russian military, Gen. Valeriy Gerasimov. The two “exchanged their views on the state of U.S.-Russian military relations and of the international security situation in Europe, the Middle East and other key regions,” the Defense Department said in a statement after the meeting.

Defense officials said that American and Russian officials would continue to try to deconflict their efforts in Syria and that the two generals had agreed to “enhance communications” on such efforts.

General Gerasimov is considered by American military officials to be an expert in so-called hybrid warfare, or war by indirect means, like interfering in elections in other countries.